Haunted Projects, Real Floods: A Call To The Failure Of Philippine Flood Control Projects Amid Corruption And Substandard Works

People struggling to wade through flood waters in Manila (Photo retrieved from EPA, 2025)

“As it turns out, it’s not the floods that will sink our nation, but greed,” declared journalist Jessica Soho — these words reflect the situation and the reality behind several flood control projects, wherein corruption and poor governance have proven to cause more damage than the disasters they are trying to prevent (GMA Public Affairs, 2025).

The Philippines has kept its title as one of the most vulnerable countries to typhoons and rainfall, with a posted risk score of 46.56 in the 2025 World Risk Index, remaining unchanged from last year, still ahead of 192 other nations, which leads to numerous challenges affecting the lives of the citizens (Inosante, 2025). To have a bigger scope of the issue, these challenges include the disruption of agriculture and livelihoods, ruining homes, and endangering human and wildlife. To address this issue, the government has promised to its citizens that action will be taken through the implementation of several flood control projects to reduce community damage, having spent more than 350 billion pesos nationwide in 2025 across various programs in building flood infrastructure (Porcala, 2025). Yet, despite pouring billions of pesos annually for flood mitigation, many of these projects have been exposed as mere “ghost projects”, with substandard infrastructures and incomplete and hazardous constructions, as funds are lost to mismanagement, leaving communities in flood-prone areas vulnerable and unprotected. As a result, outraged families and individuals flooded streets in Rizal Park in a recent protest against the government, condemning the alleged corruption that cost and affected millions of lives amid worsening floods across the nation (Ratcliffe, 2025). Thus, this reality shows that the government should mandate full disclosure in all flood control projects in the Philippines to ensure structural integrity and public safety, to promote transparency and accountability among public officials, and to strengthen disaster preparedness and climate resilience in the most vulnerable communities to flooding.

POTENTIAL DRAWBACKS

Unfinished flood control project in Pampanga (Photo retrieved from Punto News)

Despite the urgent call for full disclosure in flood control projects, it has also sparked debate about its practicality, one of which is the likelihood of delays in the implementation of these projects arising due to the additional steps that affect the pace of the implementation. A report made by the Department of Finance (2025) documented that flood control projects will have to undergo a strict evaluation and aggregation led by the DPWH, ICC, and InfraCom before the implementation of these projects, ensuring that taxpayers’ money is not wasted on poorly planned projects, guaranteeing safety, but slowing down vital projects. Similarly, BusinessWorld (2025a) shared that the Economic and Development Council has agreed to the approval process to tighten flood control projects due to the alleged corruption in the DPWH and to further improve project quality. Although this ensures that every peso goes to the right project, these additional layers significantly delay the implementation of these projects, contributing to inconsistent planning. Furthermore, these strict evaluations also lead to another issue regarding the lack of coordination between government agencies and overlapping roles in projects. According to the CoST (2019), full disclosure often highlights inefficiencies because of data discrepancies across different agencies and partial information held by separate offices. This complicates planning, monitoring, control, and evaluation, making the process more costly and time-consuming, as each agency may only track its own projects, budgets, or technical assessments. Though full disclosure causes delays and overlapping responsibilities, these are not sufficient reasons to withhold transparency. The Senate of the Philippines (2024) shared that collaboration among agencies significantly helps in addressing these issues and making projects more organized, accountable, and effective in serving communities. Aside from delayed implementations, another concern was raised about the risk of security and confidentiality breach that results in exploitation and data manipulation of projects.

Retrieved from kaspersky (2025)

Balancing transparency with national security is crucial,* *as full disclosure can compromise certain projects data and the country’s interests. **The government has the legal right under certain laws not to disclose sensitive information that could compromise national security, as stated under the Republic Act №10173, Data Privacy Act of 2012, ensuring that confidential project information is protected from misuse or unauthorized disclosure (National Privacy Commission, 2023). For example, full disclosure of data from the flood control projects could expose sensitive engineering plans, financial systems, and security structures to possible exploitation or sabotage. Restricting public access safeguards national infrastructures and prevents the threat of manipulation of data or cyberattacks (Department of Public Works and Highways & Metro Manila Development Authority, 2017). To add, allowing government institutions to handle internal projects privately, making decision-making faster and can reduce unnecessary political or public interference, maintain efficiency and reliability in project implementation (Ramos, 2025). However, despite these justifications, it is important to emphasize that excessive secrecy can be dangerous. According to the Albert Shanker Institute (2024), a transparent and accountable government is crucial for preventing the abuse of power and ensuring that officials act in the public’s best interest. This shows that transparency not only strengthens the relationship between the government and its citizens but also serves as a safeguard against corruption, inefficiency, and the misuse of authority. When citizens are informed, they are able to hold officials accountable. However, some argue that transparency can increase public skepticism, especially when complete disclosure of projects leads to controversy or political exploitation.

Filipino citizens flood the streets in a recent protest in Manila (Photo retrieved from Reuters)

While transparency is highly encouraged, the full disclosure of the flood control projects may potentially increase public skepticism and distrust among Filipino citizens about whether transparency may truly lead to meaningful change, as it also creates an opportunity for politicians and other governing bodies to exploit the information for personal gain. To begin, although there has been an increase in promotion and actual disclosures related to public projects, BusinessWorld (2025b) emphasized that only 32% of Filipino citizens show trust in the government’s ability to fully resolve corruption issues, particularly those concerning flood-control project funding after the recent breakout of the “ghost” projects. In addition, the same report noted a decline in ratings regarding the trust of the citizens in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte following the flood control corruption scandal. Similarly, according to a recently released survey conducted by Pulse Asia this year, last September 27 to 30, nearly nine in ten Filipinos believe that government officials and contractors of the DPWH colluded in the misuse of flood-control funds and contributed to the lack of flood control projects in the Philippines, with only 7% trusting the DPWH to address corruption and 81% showing distrust (The Philippine Star, 2025). Furthermore, the revelation of over 115 peso billion worth of ghost flood control projects in the 2025 national budget has sparked a political debate and increased public skepticism, showing that transparency or full disclosure of the flood control projects can easily be exploited to advance political agendas and reinforce perceptions of pork-barrel corruption, thus undermining public trust in government institutions (GMA News, 2025). Nevertheless, although the transparency of sensitive information may raise questions and momentarily heighten public skepticism, it also lays the foundation for rebuilding institutional trust. Case in point, a 2024 report from the Philippine News Agency on the Philippines’ performance in debt transparency showed that the country ranked among the highest top 50 countries in terms of debt transparency and relations with investors, due to the release of regular records on the government’s fiscal outturns and debt portfolio, which was led by the Bureau of the Treasury (Gonzales, 2024). Therefore, this initiative suggests that genuine disclosure, accompanied by consistent reporting and oversight, can strengthen confidence and public trust among citizens and public institutions.

WHY IT MATTERS

National Budget Blockchain Act introduced by Sen. Bam Aquino, for government transactions to be made open to the public (Photo retrieved from Journal Online).

Promotes Government Transparency and Accountability

When full disclosure is properly implemented and regulated, government transparency is strengthened and accountability among public officials is enforced. According to Cruzado (2025), firms such as the Discayas and Cos reportedly obtained over 46 billion pesos in project contracts through bribery, political protection, and system manipulation. Unfortunately, this theft goes beyond contracting firms as multiple officials from legislators and law firms orchestrated and remained negligent of the scheme — demonstrating the necessity of full disclosure to hold contracting firms and government executives involved accountable, as projects are brought to light. Moreover, full disclosure aligns with existing laws — particularly the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and the Government Procurement Reform Act (R.A. 9184), which mandate full disclosure of all government activities concerning finance and procurement. Such a practice guarantees that agencies fulfill their ethical duty. A prime example of this transparency is President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr’s “Sumbong sa Pangulo” website, which was recently launched, urging Filipino citizens to report any unusual or non-operational flood control projects in their locality and, at the same time, gain access to project details such as the approved budget, contractors, and dates (Presidential Communications Office, 2025). Another initiative in support of this effort is the introduction of the Blockchain Budget bill embodied in the Senate Bill №1330 by Senator Bam Aquino, which reinforces the use of technology in the government, mandating all transactions involving public funds to be recorded on a secure, verifiable, and publicly accessible platform (Santos, 2025). Senator Bam Aquino shared, “We will use the most appropriate technology to promote transparency and proper accountability,” emphasizing the active prevention of corruption in the government. Such measures allow citizens to actively monitor, verify, and scrutinize the integrity of government expenditures and projects in real time with accuracy, resulting in public trust being rebuilt in the government. EON (2024) points out that Filipinos demand institutions to provide evidence before their trust is earned, showing how credibility is earned through deeds and not words. This explains how visibility and transparency with the community are key to gaining their support and long-term confidence in government institutions. Therefore, by ensuring full disclosure of flood control projects, not only are government officials and executives involved in projects held accountable, but it also fulfills its ethical and legal obligations, which results in the complete trust and support of Filipinos. When institutions openly display evidence of how funds are used, how infrastructures are being built, and who benefits from them, citizens are then given the ability to verify the credibility of these institutions. This openness becomes the bridge that turns public doubt and outrage into trust and reliance, which ultimately paves the way for more efficient planning, responsible resource allocation, and the construction of reliable infrastructure.

LGUs conduct an inspection on a key flood control structure in Cavite (Photo retrieved from Journal Online, 2025)

Structural Integrity and Public Safety through Improved Resource Allocations

Transparency is a direct translation of safer infrastructure and, consequently, the safety of every citizen. According to Ramos (2025), most flood management projects were unable to advance the protection of vulnerable communities in the past due to poor oversight that could have been avoided through obligatory disclosure. This is supported by the fact that the Department of Public Works and Highways states that transparency and availability of project information will increase accountability, as all funds will be used to create resilient infrastructure (DPWH, 2024). Similarly, Landringan (2025) proposes that accessible information can enable professionals and local authorities to guide the course of more effective planning and distribute resources to meet the needs of society in terms of safety. This means that full disclosure helps the engineers, policymakers, and citizens to confirm that the project designs, material specifications, and cost estimates are the best available and are being put into effective practice, hence reducing the probability of substandard infrastructures and project failures. To add, Soriano (2025), notes that resource management transparency reduces wastage and redundancy, and ensures that the projects are of adequate engineering and safety quality. Thus, full disclosure is not only an anti-corruption measure, but it is a life-saving policy that will make sure that the flood control systems are not only structurally sound, but also cost-effective and disaster resilient across the country by ensuring that resources and funds are fully directed to organized construction, avoiding the disaster of substandardization. This demonstrates that transparency is not only an ethical issue, but also an engineering requirement, as it enhances every phase of the construction process, ensuring that every construction is designed to save lives and resist disasters.

Marina Barrage in Singapore (Photo retrieved from CNA, 2021)

Supports Disaster Preparedness and Climate Resilience Standards

Likewise, ensuring full disclosure will enable the construction of reliable and robust flood control infrastructure that supports disaster preparedness and climate resilience standards. A report by UNFCCC (2023) states that the Philippine government has distributed flood monitoring stations that use ICT to share warnings, allowing citizens access to flood information and plan for evacuation. Despite these benefits, several flood-prone areas still need monitoring. But by ensuring accountability, sufficient funding will be available, allowing the deployment of more flood monitoring stations and the construction of flood infrastructure. According to JICA (2024), the Philippines and Japan formed a partnership where the chief executives of JICA and DPWH signed the Record of Discussions for the Project for Enhancement of Flood Control Strategy in Prioritized River Basins to improve the flood control infrastructures throughout the Cagayan and Pasig-Marikina rivers, minimizing economic losses and destruction from flood disasters (JICA, 2024). These findings confirm that ensuring accountability will enable the development of robust flood infrastructure. Moreover, countries in Asia have succeeded in developing a corruption-free climate infrastructure, with Vietnam applying a community-based flood management system, combining large-scale infrastructures with local participation and monitoring, whereas Japan features a large-scale infrastructure management system underground with tunnels and river control systems, successfully alleviating flood risks (Lacbawan, 2025). Similarly, PUB (2024) documented that the Marina Barrage in Singapore serves as a freshwater reservoir, improving the country’s water drainage. This was made possible through the collaboration of the Singaporean Public Service and the Code of Conduct based on integrity, transparency, and incorruptibility (CPIB,2025). The success of flood management systems in Singapore, Vietnam, and Japan shows that transparency and accountability are not only duties, but are also important in resilience and effective governance. Without corruption, the Philippine government will have more resources to develop robust flood control infrastructures and systems, enabling the country to meet global standards.

WHERE WE GO FROM HERE

To conclude, mandating full disclosure in all flood control projects guarantees community safety through improved structural integrity and resource allocation, promotes unwavering transparency and accountability among public officials, and creates genuine disaster resilience and preparedness needed for vulnerable communities. While there are concerns about security breaches, project delays, and public doubt, its advantages still greatly outweigh these issues. With careful planning and stronger cooperation among government agencies, full transparency can help expose and prevent the corruption that leads to “ghost projects”. In the end, this transparency enforces accountability and restores trust in the government, because it gives citizens the right to see where the money goes, monitor projects, and inspect the public officials. Additionally, this project ensures that the money and resources are translated into safe and durable infrastructure that not only meets but also exceeds global and national standards in disaster resilience and preparedness. To ensure transparency is fully achieved, the Philippine government ought to come up with readily available online transparency systems where the status of all flood control projects in every locality, such as budgets and contractors, can easily be accessed. Monitoring such projects should be encouraged to the citizens, especially students and local communities so that it fosters awareness and collective responsibility. Furthermore, by raising awareness and engaging the masses in the process, with the help of local government officials and NGOs, will allow the Philippines not only to have a formidable flood control mechanism but also to have a more sincere, united, and disaster-resilient country.

The Reality of the Ghost Flood Control Projects

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